Actor Scott Ward Abernethy is relatively new to Washington audiences but has already appeared with 1st Stage and has joined the team at The Keegan Theatre twice. You'll find him in the Rep Stage production of The Other Place through September 25 - and you'll find the inside scoop on his personal theatre history in this week's Take Ten!

1) What was the first show you ever saw, and what impact did it have?

Well, funny thing; when I was still very young, as in before I have concrete memories young, my mother was working as a professional stage manager. I remained clueless about this until she came out of retirement to stage manage my first high school musical (which was a mortifying way to surprise your 16-year old son, let me tell you), but I do have little flashes of being backstage for shows like City of Angels and Little Shop of Horrors. I may never know the true impact of that, but I am enthralled with puppets, and thanks to the Frank Oz film, I have also been wild about Little Shop my whole life. As far as things that really connected me to the art and really woke my soul up, it would have to be reading Equus by Peter Shaffer in tenth grade. Mind. Blown.

2) What was your first involvement in a theatrical production?

Oooooh boy. The first actual piece of theatre (if you could call it that) that I was in was called the Tales of Ivanhaw, in my first semester of 9th grade. It was one of those ghastly written for middle or elementary school messes, and I admit that I had totally joined the drama club to hang out with my girlfriend after school. I played Fellipe, a flamenco dancing Spanish knight. I had six lines that became five minutes of very loud shtick, so…the rest is history.

3) What’s your favorite play or musical, and why do you like it so much?

Boo, I hate picking favorites. I am much too mercurial for it, and whenever I see something new that’s thrilling and immediate it can monopolize my brain space for quite a while. The “why” just makes it harder, as the reasoning is as diverse as the art itself. But if I must, I must! The Flick is a tricky little monster, but I think it’s an exceptionally modern masterpiece. KingLear and As You Like It always give me butterflies, and I am deeply in love with Don Quixote and any way to tell that story. Other than that, give me a big old filthy irreverent comedy and I’ll be grinning.

4) What’s the worst day job you ever took?

Telemarketing. Sales and service industry can drain your soul over time, but after day one I felt like a vampire had gotten to me. Nossir.

5) What is your most embarrassing moment in the theatre?

There are a handful of solid contenders here. First of all, if I am making a lot of costume changes, I occasionally need reminded to triple check my fly. That’s a real problem.

Anecdotally though, I’ll go with the flying guitar smash. It was my third year of grad school, and my class had devised a sprawling political epic called Harp Song for a Radical. I was playing a campaign manager being led down the rabbit hole by Eugene Debs, who was preparing to turn into Woodie Guthrie and sing me into intermission. It made sense, just…. trust me. Anyway, his guitar was flown in for this while I was busy acting up a storm in my climactic moment of the act. Sure enough I act my way a few feet further towards him and WHAM. Guitar + Face = ouch. The audience is horrified, Phil, the actor playing Eugene, is trying not to laugh outright, and my next line is “Please, just let me go home.” Nailed it.

6) What are you enjoying most about working on THE OTHER PLACE?

Well, about a week after being cast, I discover someone very important to me is pretty far along with alzheimer’s disease and dementia. So that hit. I am not onstage much, which grants the privilege of listening to Julie-Ann, Nigel, and Maggie wrestle with the tragic reality of it, and it’s enlightening every time. Joseph (our director) also cries a lot in rehearsal. I may have just shot myself in the foot telling you so, but it’s so revelatory. He’s sensationally focused, and he’ll be describing something you thought was mundane from Sharr’s [brilliant] script, and he tears up over this small moment, and all of sudden you see it too. This new heartbreaking detail that just becomes another thread of the tragic tapestry of this show. I love it. Don’t fire me Joseph.

Oh my. “Dream date” sounds a little loaded to me, but if I could sit down for dinner and drinks, bare my soul and talk until the sun comes up? Robin Williams. Then again I would love to go dancing with Esperanza Spalding, then propose under a devil’s moon. Is this something you can make happen? Is that why you are asking me?!?!

8) What is your dream role/job?

Right now? I’ll say Richard III, and John Wilmot the 2nd Earl of Rochester in Stephen Jeffreys The Libertine.

9) If you could travel back in time, what famous production or performance would you choose to see?

Can time travel even get Hamilton tickets? Mark Rylance in Jerusalem. Apparently it is streamable, but that’s my top of the head answer. Or I would just go back and try to hang out with John Barton’s crew…. As if.

10) What advice would you give to an 8-year-old smitten by theatre / for a graduating MFA student?

“Love art in yourself, not yourself in art.” -Stanislavski

Cliché, I know, but paint this on your wall so you see it every day. The current generation of actors, myself included, are unfortunately forced to commoditize their worth at the very inception of the dream to perform. “Being an actor” means something much different in this entertainment age, and especially while you are first tampering with the craft it is essential to keep that poison out. When the time comes, recognize it, control it, use it better than anybody, and even enjoy it a little; but always know better. Go back to that quote, it only gets better with time.

SCOTT WARD ABERNETHY. It has been only a year since Scott made the move between Washingtons, and he hasn’t had time to look back. He has appeared twice now at the Keegan Theatre, as Doc in last years The Magic Tree, and most recently as the Doctor in Next to Normal. At 1st Stage he played his own grandson as the Gabriels in When the Rain Stops Falling, and now is thrilled to return this fall as Stanley Jerome in their upcoming production of Broadway Bound. Before moving to the DC area, Scott was a regular at the Seattle Shakespeare Company in such productions as King Lear, Measure for Measure, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love’s Labours Lost, and others. He worked on Hamlet with New City Theatre, Christmas Carol at ACT, Servant of Two Masters at Seattle Rep, Henry IV and Man in the Iron Mask with Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and received a Gypsy Award best supporting nomination for the role of Eldon Pike in Sound Theatre’s production of Indian Ink, under the direction of Andrew McGinn. Scott is originally from Pennsylvania, but received his MFA in acting from the University of Washington.